Neville's Financial Blog » Computerhttp://www.nevblog.com
Tracking the road to financial successMon, 02 Mar 2015 20:57:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Mac Shortcuts – Watch this if you use a Machttp://www.nevblog.com/mac-shortcuts-watch-this-if-you-use-a-mac/
http://www.nevblog.com/mac-shortcuts-watch-this-if-you-use-a-mac/#commentsFri, 08 Jun 2012 17:21:50 +0000http://www.nevblog.com/?p=2139If you just bought a Mac, or have used one for years, I guarantee you’ll learn some productivity hacks in this video! I was slowly convinced to buy a MacBook Air about 1 1/2 years ago….and I’ve never looked back. You open the Mac up, and the damn thing is just READY TO GO. And […]

]]>http://www.nevblog.com/mac-shortcuts-watch-this-if-you-use-a-mac/feed/34“Should I Make An iPhone App?”http://www.nevblog.com/should-i-make-an-iphone-app/
http://www.nevblog.com/should-i-make-an-iphone-app/#commentsMon, 30 Jan 2012 01:18:23 +0000http://www.nevblog.com/?p=1840“Should I make an iPhone app??” ….it’s a question I’ve heard quite often, and a question I’ve asked myself a few times. Then I remembered I’m friends with the three guys that started Mutual Mobile, which is the largest (or one of the largest) iPhone app developers in the United States. They’re now so big […]

….it’s a question I’ve heard quite often, and a question I’ve asked myself a few times.

Then I remembered I’m friends with the three guys that started Mutual Mobile, which is the largest (or one of the largest) iPhone app developers in the United States. They’re now so big (250+ people) they focus on huge enterprise stuff, but they have a TON of experience with apps.

So John Arrow, a friend, and also the CEO of Mutual Mobile was speaking at The Internet Marketing Party here in Austin, and his speech directly answered my question of “SHOULD I BUILD AN IPHONE APP?”

You see, I build all these online courses, and they’re only on the web at the moment….no iPad or iPhone apps yet. However developers who’ve taken the courses and liked them have offered to put them on the app store for me.

Just for fun I mocked up what it’d look like for the KopywritingKourse to be on an iPhone :-)

Anyhow….I’ve thought about this multiple times. And it makes sense, “If this works well on the web, it will work well on the App Store! I’m a GEMIUS!!”

Well after listening to John Arrow speak at the Internet Marketing Party I have some more insight on this, and here it is:

He said this (and I’m paraphrasing):

Just because something on the web works, DOES NOT mean it will work well as an app. Think about it like this:

What additional benefit does product solve if it’s on a phone? Does it make your service/product more valuable…easier to use?

iPhone’s and iPad’s are portable…..would your service be better if it was more portable? Would it give the users more features that could use their geographic location?

Here’s something we did: The company People Finder offers background checks. Just releasing the app as “People Finder” didn’t offer the user anymore benefits than using the service from their mobile browser. So we made an app called “Are They Single?” …and it did phenomenally well.

It was a simple app, that when you meet someone, you can type in their name and buy a quick background check which shows you if they’re married, single, have kids etc.

This was a huge success because it solved a problem involving geographic location.

No one cares about having a People Finder app on their phone. They just wanted answers to a specific question. The way we released that app, DID in fact help people more than the web service.

So if you’re just taking a product from web, and doing a simple port-over to an app….it’s very unlikely it will work unless you add more functionality that’s helpful from a phone.

So there was my answer to “Should I put some of my courses on the app store?”

Not the way I was gonna do it.

That explanation was really helpful, because now I can put that thought to rest….until I find a way that having an app would be MUCH more beneficial to the users. For now they can always load and watch the courses on their phones with their browsers.

Think about this advice before spending time and money on building out an app. John has seen tons of successes and failures in this space. He even started out his speech by asking everyone in the crowd if they’ve built an iPhone app. Very few people raised their hands.

He then said, “Now give yourselves a round of applause for NOT wasting your money!”

….which is a testament to how many failed attempts at simply porting over a website to an app he’s seen.

]]>http://www.nevblog.com/should-i-make-an-iphone-app/feed/15HP Minihttp://www.nevblog.com/hp-mini/
http://www.nevblog.com/hp-mini/#commentsSat, 23 May 2009 07:10:00 +0000http://www.nevblog.com/?p=471Few days ago I bought one of these HP Mini netbooks (a netbook is basically a mini laptop). They’re super cheap, extremely portable and great for carrying around town (I’ll also be using this for the upcoming homeless experiment). These netbooks are SMALL, but after playing with several, I came to the conclusion almost all […]

]]>Few days ago I bought one of these HP Mini netbooks (a netbook is basically a mini laptop). They’re super cheap, extremely portable and great for carrying around town (I’ll also be using this for the upcoming homeless experiment).

These netbooks are SMALL, but after playing with several, I came to the conclusion almost all of them are nearly useless because I can barely type on them.

However the one exception I found was the HP Mini (I bought the 1033CL).

It has a “nearly” full size keyboard…..which essentially means I can actually type on this as opposed to all the other netbooks I tried (seriously, it was nearly impossible even with a few minutes of practice).

SO this post is being made right from the drivers seat of my car. I’m testing out the portability, battery life and capabilities of this thing (so far..GREAT).

It even has an SD card slot which I can upload pictures from my camera:

My hand is nearly bigger than the whole computer.

My steering wheel is bigger than the whole thing.

Sits perfectly on my lap or the center console….even my tiny tablet had trouble with that.

So far I’m loving this thing as a travel-companion computer. I wouldn’t make this my sole computer since I’m on a computer 8+ hours a day, but otherwise for basic computer use, internet, typing, blogging etc. this thing is fantastic!

]]>http://www.nevblog.com/hp-mini/feed/6New Toys Toys Toyshttp://www.nevblog.com/new-toys-toys-toys/
http://www.nevblog.com/new-toys-toys-toys/#commentsTue, 20 Mar 2007 08:03:00 +0000http://www.nevblog.com/?p=324The week has been like Christmas morning, but instead of Santa Clause the UPS man delivers the goods! My new home workspace now looks like this: NEW DELL COMPUTERI was thinking the main thing that will help BodyMonkey sell stuff is the shopping experience where you can view custom images and videos for most products. […]

]]>The week has been like Christmas morning, but instead of Santa Clause the UPS man delivers the goods!

My new home workspace now looks like this:

NEW DELL COMPUTERI was thinking the main thing that will help BodyMonkey sell stuff is the shopping experience where you can view custom images and videos for most products. I’ve been doing most of the photo and video editing on my trusty Tablet PC, but that computer wasn’t designed for such process-intensive activities such as simultaneous photo and video editing….so I needed an upgrade.

I bought a 64-bit AMD Dell with a big hard drive and high performance graphics card. I probably could have built a better machine for slightly less money, but I’m in no mood to build a computer. The Dell so far has been perfect for the job. It set me back approximately $750.

NEW MONITORPhoto editing and video editing generally takes up a lot of screen real estate, so I wanted a widescreen for a nice work area. I needed something with good resolution and a bright screen. I ended up buying a 22″ Acer widescreen monitor from TigerDirect for under $300.

I’m actually VERY pleased with how the monitor turned out to be, especially for that price!

WINDOWS VISTA AND OFFICEI have a friend who works for Microsoft who gets MS products for deep discounts. So I ordered Windows Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate. I usually just download pirated software, but Microsoft has become exceedingly efficient at verifying your Windows copy is legit before you can download updates.

When I ordered the Dell computer it came free with Windows Vista Home Edition….I DID NOT LIKE IT. It’s made for very novice computer user, so I’m glad I upgraded to Vista Ultimate.

Retail price of both Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate together is something like $700+, but I got them both for $130 (Office is actually more expensive than Vista).

NEW TRIPODI had this GorillaPod thing for taking product photos, but after I upgraded to a real camera for product photos, the GorillaPod wasn’t sturdy enough to support the big camera. It also had short legs so it couldn’t take pictures from higher angles.

I ended up buying a professional and very sturdy tripod with extendable legs, so I can take pictures from about 6 feet in the air. I can also use this if I decide to buy a larger SLR camera or video camera in the future. This set me back about $80.

NEW PERSONAL CAMERA My last Casio Exilim I bought was crushed somewhere between when I went to India and Germany….and half the screen is now whited out, meaning I can’t change settings or really see what kind of picture I took. Also the night pictures never came out well, so I wanted a new camera before I went to China anyway.

I bought a Cannon SD750. I don’t have much time before I leave for china, so I basically went to Best Buy, asked some guy what the best compact camera was and bought it. I’m sure money could’ve been saved if I Ebay’d it, but I don’t have that kind of time and have other stuff to focus on.

This purchase means I’ve gone through one camera per year, not including the camera I bought for product photos! This camera is AWESOME when it comes to functionality and picture quality. It set me be back about $370.

———————————-

I’m very pleased with all the purchases, especially the new computer. Having a separate computer for graphics and video editing has really increased my productivity as seen here!